Why do you always try to change the subject and venture far from the topic at hand?

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They're America owned and fair!

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Christians and Muslims united.

Beautiful man, beautiful!

Egypt regime offers concessions to opposition

Government to allow freedom of the press, will release detained protesters and will study constitutional reforms



CAIRO — Egypt's vice president met a broad representation of major opposition groups for the first time Sunday and offered new concessions including freedom of the press, release of those detained since anti-government protests began nearly two weeks ago and the eventual lifting of the country's hated emergency laws.

Two of the groups that attended the meeting said this was only a first step in a dialogue which has yet to meet their central demand — the immediate ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak.

"People still want the president to step down," said Mostafa al-Naggar, a protest organizer and supporter of Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate and one of the country's leading democracy advocates.

"The protest continues because there are no guarantees and not all demands have been met," he added. "We did not sign on to the statement. This is a beginning of a dialogue. We approve the positive things in the statement but ... we are still demanding that the president step down."

The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, made a similar statement after its representatives attended the meeting.

Vice President Omar Suleiman offered to set up a committee of judiciary and political figures to study proposed constitutional reforms that would allow more candidates to run for president and impose term limits on the presidency, the state news agency reported. The committee was given until the first week of March to finish the tasks.

The offer also included a pledge not to harass those participating in anti-government protests, which have drawn hundreds of thousands at the biggest rallies. The government agreed not to hamper freedom of press and not to interfere with text messaging and Internet.

The meeting drew the broadest representation of Egypt's fragmented opposition to sit with the new vice president since the protests began on Jan. 25.

The new offer of concessions followed a series of others that would have been unimaginable just a month ago in this tightly controlled country. All appear geared to placate the protesters and relieve international pressure without giving in to the one demand that unites all the opposition — Mubarak's immediate departure. The latest agreement makes no mention of any plan for Mubarak to step before a new election is held later this year.

Since protests began, Mubarak has pledged publicly for the first time that he will not seek re-election. The government promised his son Gamal, who had widely been expected to succeed him, would also not stand. Mubarak appointed a vice president for the first time since he took office three decades ago, widely considered his designated successor. He sacked his Cabinet, named a new one and promised reforms. And on Saturday, the top leaders of the ruling party, including Gamal Mubarak, were purged.

There were signs that the paralysis that has gripped the country since the crisis began was easing Sunday, the first day of the week in Egypt. Some schools reopened for the first time in more than a week, and banks did the same for only three hours with long lines outside. However, there is still a night curfew, and tanks ringing the city's central square and guarding government buildings, embassies and other important institutions.

At the epicenter of the protests, Tahrir (Liberation) Square in central Cairo, some activists said they had slept under army tanks ringing the plaza for fear they would try to evict them or further confine the area for demonstrations. The crowd of thousands in the morning swelled steadily over the day to tens of thousands in the late afternoon. Many were exhausted and wounded from fighting to stand their ground for more than a week in the square.

"We are determined to press on until our number one demand is met," said Khaled Abdul-Hameed, a representative of the protesters.

He said the activists have formed a 10-member "Coalition of the Youths of Egypt's Revolution," to relay their positions to politicians and public figures negotiating with the regime.

"The regime is retreating. It is making more concessions everyday," Abdul-Hameed said.

Mubarak is insisting he cannot stand down now or it would only deepen the chaos in his country. The United States shifted signals and gave key backing to the regime's gradual changes on Saturday, warning of the dangers if Mubarak goes too quickly.

The opposition groups represented at the meeting included the youthful supporters of ElBaradei, who are one of the main forces organizing the protests. ElBaradei was not invited and his brother said the statement by those who did attend does not represent his personal view.

The Muslim Brotherhood and a number of smaller leftist, liberal groups also attended, according to footage shown on state television.

The government offered to open an office that would field complaints about political prisoners, according to the state news agency. It also pledged to commission judicial authorities to fight corruption and prosecute those behind it. In another concession, authorities promised to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the yet unexplained disappearance of police from Cairo's streets more than a week ago, which unleashed a wave of lawless looting and arson.

The offer to eventually lift emergency laws when security permits would fulfill a longtime demand by the opposition. The laws were imposed by Mubarak when he took office in 1981 and they have been in force ever since. They give police far-reaching powers for detention and suppression of civil and human rights.

The government agreed to set up a committee that includes public and independent figures and specialists and representatives of youth movements to monitor the "honest implementation" of all the new agreements and to report back and give recommendations to Suleiman.

Before the meetings, the Muslim Brotherhood made clear it would insist on Mubarak's immediate ouster. The fundamentalist Islamic group, which has been outlawed since 1954 but fields candidates in parliamentary elections as independents, did not organize or lead the protests currently under way and only publicly threw its support behind them a few days into the movement. It only ordered its supporters to take part when it sensed that the protesters, mostly young men and women using social networks on the Internet to mobilize, were able to sustain their momentum.

There have been no known discussions between the Brotherhood and the regime in years — one of many startling shifts in policy after years of crackdowns by the Western-backed regime against the Islamists.

Both Mubarak and Suleiman have blamed the Brotherhood as well as foreigners of fomenting the recent unrest. Mubarak is known to have little or no tolerance for Islamist groups and the decision to open talks with the Brotherhood is a tacit recognition by his regime of their key role in the ongoing protests as well as their wide popular base.

The Brotherhood aims to create an Islamic state in Egypt, but insists that it would not force women to cover up in public in line with Islam's teachings and would not rescind Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

The group, which fields candidates as independents, made a surprisingly strong showing in elections in 2005, winning 20 percent of parliament's seats. However, thousands of its members were arrested in crackdowns over the past decade and it failed to win a single seat in elections held late last year. The vote was heavily marred by fraud that allowed the National Democratic Party to win all but a small number of the chamber's 518 seats.

At Tahrir Square, hundreds performed the noon prayers and later offered a prayer for the souls of protesters killed in clashes with security forces. Later, Christians held a Sunday Mass and thousands of Muslims joined in.

Some of the worshippers broke down and cried as the congregation sang: "Bless our country, listen to the screams of our hearts."

"In the name of Jesus and Muhammad we unify our ranks," Father Ihab al-Kharat said in his sermon. "We will keep protesting until the fall of the tyranny," he said.

In the capital Cairo, home to some 18 million people, there were some signs of a return to normalcy. Traffic was back to near regular levels and more stores reopened across the city, including some on the streets leading to Tahrir Square. Protesters greeted some store owners and people returning to work with flowers.

In Zamalek, an affluent island in the middle of the Nile that is home to many foreign embassies, food outlets reopened and pizza delivery boys checked their motorbikes. Employees at a KFC restaurant wiped down tables. Hairdressers and beauty salons called their patrons to let them know they were reopening.

'Bloody revolution'
The United Nations estimates 300 people have died in the unrest and the health minister has said around 5,000 people have been injured since Jan. 25.

A website began cataloging the names and photos of some of those reported killed in the unrest. It was not possible to independently confirm the information in most of the cases.

ElBaradei said that there was a "hard core" who would not give up as long as Mubarak held onto power and that protests would continue.

"It might not be every day but what I hear is that they might stage demonstrations every other day," he said.

"The difference is that it would become more angry and more vicious. And I do not want to see it turning from a beautiful, peaceful revolution into a bloody revolution."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41445147/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa

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The US electric grid is a mammoth, complex network of independently owned and operated power plants and transmission lines. Most of the currently available infrastructure was put in place across the 1950s and 60s. Its sheer age is now earning commentary like this, on NPR:

"The U.S. power grid is often equated to a highway system, one that has been seriously neglected and is now being pushed to its limits with the demands of our growing and changing energy needs. As we see the rise in demand for renewable energy sources to combat the environmental ramifications of fossil fuels, the grid will continue to be proven antiquated and in need of reinvention."

The Department of Energy estimates that demand for electricity has increased by around 25 % since 1990 while construction of transmission facilities dropped 30%. According to Media Company Red Herring Inc., energy demand in the US is likely to surge 32% by 2015.

The grid failure of 2003 that affected the lives of over 50 million people is an oft-quoted example to underline the necessity of modernizing the US power grid. This is not just to deal with growing demand, but also to accommodate the new focus on renewable energy sources like wind, solar and hydro power: which are not easily inter-connectable to the existing grid without significant refurbishing. The goal, of course, is to address long term energy security. Opting for renewable energy and putting in place infrastructure like 'smart grids', however, calls for a sizable investment.

A key target to reduce energy lost in the distribution process is the emergence of higher efficiency requirements for power and distribution transformers. Currently, transformers are responsible for a sizable amount of the energy lost and it is here that the DOE is introducing rules to increase efficiency. According to the rules published by the DOE, the cost of liquid-immersed distribution transformers increases by up to 12%, but should decrease electrical losses by as much as 23%. It could also raise the cost of medium-voltage, dry-type transformers by up to 13%, but should decrease electrical losses by as much as 26%.

Although much of the energy efficient technology is a little more expensive, private and government-owned utilities have begun to invest in it for the reliability it ensures. Additionally, the initial investment more than pays for itself in the long run, due to the decreased energy lost in the transmission and distribution system.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Aging-Power-Infrastructure-in-the-US&id=4802690

Yes, I know!

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g'night all.

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G'night Haley

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Health care fraud no longer a faceless crime

Scams cost taxpayers $60 billion a year, but bank holdups get more attention




WASHINGTON — Health care fraud used to be a faceless crime — until now.

Medicare and Medicaid scams cost taxpayers more than $60 billion a year, but the average bank holdup is likely to get more attention. Seeking the public's help to catch more than 170 fugitive fraudsters, the government has launched a new health care most-wanted list, with its own website.

Among those featured is Leonard Nwafor, convicted a couple of years ago in Los Angeles of billing Medicare more than $1 million for motorized wheelchairs that beneficiaries didn't need. One of those who got a wheelchair was a blind man who later testified he couldn't see to operate it.

Facing time in federal prison, Nwafor disappeared before his sentencing.

"We're looking for new ways to press the issue of catching fugitives," said Gerald Roy, deputy inspector general for investigations at the Health and Human Services Department. "If someone walks into a bank and steals $3,000 or $4,000, it would be all over the newspaper. These people manage to do it from a less high profile position, but they still have a tremendous impact."

Even though motorized wheelchairs can run from under $1,000 to $7,000 apiece, Nawfor's scam was on the low end when compared to others who made the most-wanted list.

Sisters Clara and Caridad Guilarte allegedly submitted $9 million to Medicare in false and fraudulent claims for pricey infusion drugs that were never provided to patients. They are accused of offering cash and other rewards for beneficiaries to visit their clinic in Dearborn, Mich., and sign forms that said they received services that they never got.

An alleged accomplice was arrested in the Dominican Republic recently, but the sisters remain at large.

Scammers "often utilize their ties to a particular community," said Roy. "They take advantage of ethnic communities based on language barriers or lack of knowledge about how the Medicare system works. These folks are exploiting low-income communities."

Another fugitive, Susan Bendigo, is accused of billing California's Medicaid program for $17 million in nursing care, much of which was performed by staffers who weren't licensed. A registered nurse herself, Bendigo was the nursing director for a company that provided personnel for home health agencies. Allegedly, she was fully aware that she was required to send licensed nurses to care for patients.

Topping the list are Miami brothers Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez. Owners of a string of medical clinics, they allegedly scammed Medicare out of $119 million by billing for costly HIV drugs that patients never received or did not need. Authorities say they bought hotels, helicopters and boats before fleeing to Cuba.

The FBI has the marquee most-wanted list, but the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies also maintain their own. Roy said he hopes this newest list will raise awareness about the importance of combatting health care fraud. Medicare and Medicaid, which provide care for about 100 million Americans, are in serious financial trouble and can't afford to be hemorrhaging tens of billions a year because of fraud.

Most fraudsters go to elaborate lengths to avoid being detected. But there is often some telltale sign.

To document his transactions, wheelchair purveyor Nwafor assembled elaborate paper files, complete with bogus prescriptions and photos of beneficiaries in their wheelchairs. But investigators had a hunch they were on to something when they discovered that most of his customers lived nearly 200 miles away from his Los Angeles-area store front.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41438362/ns/politics/

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